In April of 1998, I joined the United States Air Force. I was so excited and nervous about my new path in life. I really did not know what to expect. Was I going to jump right in and instantly be transformed into a military soldier? Not at all, I had to start from the beginning. That started with basic training for 6 weeks at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.

This was one of the most intense training programs I have ever experienced in my entire life. Basic training is a program that is meant to help strengthen you and make you adept in handling the physical, mental, and emotional elements you would have to face during your tour of service.

They take the everyday civilian person out of you and prepare you to be a combat warrior. Ready to do battle for a greater cause than yourself. It is certainly not something you learn overnight and it definitely wasn’t easy.

I can relate basic training to becoming a new believer in Christ. When I first became a believer in Christ, I believed that if I gave my heart to Jesus, my life would be holy and free from all the difficulties of life. I learned very quickly that my thinking was flawed.

The Lord never promised that being a Christian would be easy in fact in Hebrews 12:7 it says, “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?”

We have to strip off our old-self and become the person God intended us to be… “A soldier for Christ.” The transformation takes time as God begins His good work in you. He enables others to teach you His Word. The Bible instructs us how we are to live and serve with our new purpose in life.

He gives you one of His greatest weapons…prayer. He also blesses you with “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms” Ephesians 1:3. As we continue to grow in Christ, our minds become renewed into warriors who stand for Jesus.

As believers we face difficulties in life just like every other person in this world. The only difference is that we have Jesus who stands with us in the battle. We will face difficulties. John 16:33 says, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

I am now an U.S.A.F veteran, but the Lord is not done with me yet. He has commissioned me to be a soldier to fight for a greater cause than myself…the Kingdom of God.

“Endure hardness, as good soldier of Jesus Christ, “knowing that “no man that wars, entangles himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please Him who has chosen him to be a soldier” (2 Tim. 2:3-4)